The Move
by KyonIsTheMan
Summary: In a stunning event, Haruhi's house is burned down! The Suzumiyas go to live in a family friend's house while theirs is being re-built. Turns out, the house is right in front of Kyon's...
1. Chapter 1

_Well, here it is. I hope you guys like it, it's my 1st Haruhi Suzumiya fanfic. :D_

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"I do believe I've got you in check."

Koizumi gave his ominous, trademarked smile. It was hard to take him seriously since he was smiling all the time, just his stare gave off a perplexing aura only sensible in RPG games. Or maybe he was getting lucky? I moved my king to the left. I was currently sitting in the SOS Brigade's club room, laying out my next move on the battlefield of black and white placed in front of me. There were already many chess pieces laying on either side of the board of both colors. I supposed I that I was going to claim victory in this match. It made me feel like Napoleon Bonaparte.

Asahina was in her usual, frilly maid costume brewing up some of her special tea. It made me feel somewhat melancholic and unworthy to have such an angel descend from Heaven and upon Earth to brew delicious, warm tea for me and only me. It was comforting to know that no matter how disgusting the tea leaves were, Asahina could always brew it into a heavenly elixir.

Nagato was sitting behind Koizumi, slightly to the right, I could only see half of her face from the current angle, and could only make out the title of the fiction novel she was digging in to based on the first few letters of every line in it. It was a Russian copy of The Phantom of the Opera. Wait, wasn't that just a play?

Our 'eccentric Brigade Chief' that I was forced to blindly and unwillingly follow every day was sitting behind the computer she stole from the Computer Society. Haruhi Suzumiya. As I peered on through the window, I noticed how beautiful of a day it was, making now one of the times I wished I was the athletic type. I wouldn't mind at all sitting outside for an hour or two as well. Why doesn't Haruhi go out for sports and stick with one, she would obviously make it onto any school sport she tried out for.

The club room was as silent as the ocean in the night after Titanic had taken its final breath of air before plunging into the abyss. I soon snapped out of my surreal state once Koizumi leaned forward and place his index finger on his pawn, he examined around the board intently with his other hand scratching his chin. I wish he would make his move already, it wasn't the most exhilerating to have to watch Koizumi give out the same gesture after every time I moved one of the pieces of plastic on the board. He moved his pawn up two spaces and then sat there for a second or two. He finally took his finger off of the pawn. I contemplated on his move and noticed that he left his queen in the open for me to take with ease, was he planning something? I took his queen with my knight and finished my move, the knight was on a clear path for his king.

"Check."

The little man inside my head that wanted victory through every competative aspect was happy. Koizumi checked out the board and his eyebrows rose as he began to scratch his chin again.

"My, my, I didn't even see that coming."

Well, you deserve it for dragging me into your Hell-hole situations, your tricks won't work on me. I turned right and noticed that Haruhi was staring intently at me with her head rested on her hands, she had a very mischievous look on her face. The thousand-Watt smile on her face implied that she was on the brink of a finding the solution to world hunger, although reality is never as promising, I should know as much. She leaned back up and placed her hands on her lap, then snapped her fingers.

"I've got it!"

Got what?

"I know what we'll do tomorrow!"

That's right, I forgot that she's been planning to give us an afternoon of 'fun activities' since about two weeks ago; a freshman had walked into the club room and took a look around. He had an odd style of hair that made me think of the events that occured on September the Eleventh in the United States. It was every bit as awful as previously depicted. I see the guy time to time in the hallways, but nothing else to report. "This looks boring", he calmly stated before he turned around and shut the door behind him. Haruhi was so infuriated after his statement that she made it her life goal to ruin this man's life. I can't blame Haruhi, I would be angry too if an anonymous person walked in my club room, said that, and then walked off. Well, scratch that, I can blame Haruhi, she obviously brings some of these occurances on herself.

"He was a chauvinist pig!"

"In all fairness, I really don't believe it matters anymore."

"You're going to let him get away with insulting your Brigade Chief? How dare you, Kyon!"

Haruhi's aura was overwhelming, I will not be defeated by this monstrosity, I have to retaliate. Viva La Revolución!

"Even if we do something fun or unusual, it's not like anybody would notice. Even more so, it's not like that guy would catch our activities and want to join."

I really don't think anybody would want to join if they discovered what sorts of 'activites' the SOS Brigade engages in. Haruhi gave me a disgruntled look. The way her hair caressed her face reminded me of a jellyfish swimming through the icy-cold waters of the deep ocean. Maybe I'm going off the deep end with these hair analogies. Of course a jellyfish and Haruhi have a similar personality, if I had to say which animal Haruhi was most like. Saying Haruhi is like a specific animal is a bit of an understatement, she is an animal in general. Haruhi clicked a few more times on the computer screen and then stood up.

"Whatever, I'm going home."

I watched as she grabbed her books and made her way toward the door. It was hard not to look at Haruhi from behind, she's a well-endowed girl. She closed the door behind her and I waited until I could no longer hear her footsteps down the hallway. The open windows to the club room let in a light breeze from time to time that felt extremely pleasing during the summer but would feel insanely petrifying during the winter. Heading home sounded like a good idea, so I too stood up.

"I'm leaving as well."

I took a long, drawn-out stretch as I got up from my chair, letting out a sigh of antipathy toward the hike down home. Finally, I made my way to the door. I can safely say I was going to become the victor in the game of chess against Koizumi anyway, it's not like he could suddenly make a comeback with only three pawns left and his king. Anyway, the entire walk home felt different from the usual, I can't explain why, but I felt an abnormality. Around half way home, it began to drizzle. The rain gradually increased until it was raining cats and dogs, not literally, Haruhi would've gone insane if that was happening. When I finally arrived at my house, it was fairly late, I took off my wet shoes and rain coat, concentrating on not dripping too much water on the wooden floor. I checked the clock beside the front door as I began to walk toward my bedroom. Damn, it's late, I only have thirty minutes left to finish homework, eat, and get ready for bed.

My sister ran in my room occasionally asking for a pencil, which made me feel like a British citizen constantly being air-raided by the Germans. I was forced to let her use my pencil by my Mom who was shouting from downstairs, telling me to let her use it, the entire inquisition was a bit unneeded. I was left there with no pencil for five minutes, three times. Don't we have any other pencils downstairs she can use, I'm pretty sure there's some in the kitchen. Anyway, I finished my homework so late that I only had six hours of sleep to fill in.

That night I had the worst nightmare I've ever had. I was standing on a street in the rain somewhere in town and I saw a large pillar of smoke and debree rising from one house. I ran to that specific house and realized that it was completely on fire. Where was the fire department? I called for help but nobody was in the general area, I doubt there was anybody in town at all in my dream. The dream must have started in rather close proximity to the time my alarm clock goes off, because I didn't even get to see what became of the house. It was an intriguing dream, to say the least, rather than an unpleasant one, although it did have some scary aspects.

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The hike to school the next morning was two times as tiring as usual due to my lack of sleep last night and less than memorable. Shouldn't six hours be enough time to wake up refreshed? I began to wonder if I was going to have to pay off my sleep debt in class today. Taniguchi and I met up and talked the whole way to school, I decided to tell him about my dream.

"Wow, that sounded like a bizarre dream."

Yeah? It was.

"I heard that when people have a dream about something burning, their house is on fire."

"Well I'm glad it didn't. Don't throw these unwanted worries on me."

"Hey man, just saying. Maybe you could've gotten a nice, new house!"

He slapped me lightly on the back of my head after this statement, messing up the hair in that location. I gave him an intentional 'displeased' look. I hope he gets the message.

"You know, I took ten minutes on my hair this morning."

"Yeah? That's nothing! I take like twenty every morning!"

That's understandable, seeing as your hair looks like it needs a lot more work in the morning than that kid with the ridiculous hair dew from a few weeks ago. Speaking of that, I wonder what Haruhi has set up for us today as our 'fun activity'. Not knowing what that maniac is planning made me feel like a Persian warrior forced to walk around the cliff and find three hundred Spartans waiting for me.

"You have normal hair, Kyon, unlike me. My hair needs gel and attention!"

"Your hair wouldn't need gel if you gave it a chance. I feel sorry for your hair, it can't emerge from that battle ship hull-thick layer of gel you apply to it every day."

Taniguchi gave off a grin to this easily recognizable retort. Does he laugh at insults as well as jokes?

"Maybe I'll try that one of these days."

Taniguchi and I continued conversing about trivial topics until about three-fourths of the way up the steep incline to school when Kunikida walked up from a side road and joined our miniature posse. The rest of the way to school, Kunikida was staring at the girl who was walking in front of us. She had a ponytail and a cute, blue ribbon to hold it up. Why doesn't Haruhi wear ponytails anymore? Even better, Ms. Asahina! The thought of Ms. Asahina with a ponytail again gave me a warm feeling.

After we entered the school, Taniguchi and Kunikida began to walk toward their lockers, which just so happened to be right beside each other on the other side of the locker area. I opened my locker and stuffed my shoes inside while concentrating on keeping the incident involving Asakura out of my mind. It gave me the goose-bumps, you just can't forget about an occurrence like that. Afterwards, Taniguchi, Kunikida, and I made our way up to the classroom where we spend hours sitting in the same place, daily. Big fun. I slid open the traditional Japanese-styled door to the classroom but to my surprise, Haruhi wasn't sitting in her seat, she wasn't even there at all. That's odd, Haruhi not at school? If her super-sized energy level can be drained so much by disease that she has to stay home, then maybe she is just a normal, high school girl after all. I walked over to my desk and set my book bag's strap on the convenient handle on the side of the desk. After a few minutes of contemplation, the teacher finished fiddling around with the papers on his desk and stood up. The teacher was a bit of a pseudo-anglicist, he used many words from different languages during class that were understandable to people only like Nagato and himself. You can speak normally, try it. He walked to the middle of the front of the classroom and began to speak.

"Haruhi Suzumiya will not be attending class for the next day or two due to a terrible misfortune last night when her house caught on fire from as of yet unknown origins."

Oh my God, what? Did he just say what I think he said? This can't be happening, somebody wake me up. Wait, didn't I have a dream of that last night? Yeah, I did, damn it! There were many whispers and light gasps from around the class, some of the students decided to turn around and look at me. They gave me a look that was a mix of 'you did this' and 'I feel sorry for you'. Taniguchi and Kunikida decided to throw these weightful stares on me as well. I don't need your thoughts, turn back around, please.

"Don't worry, her and her parents are both safe and sound. Like I said, she'll be back in class within the next day or two, but if you wish to know any details, read the school paper."

This is unbelievable, I need to find Haruhi after school.

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After class, I made it my duty to find Haruhi. I searched all over town and inquired about the owners of the neighboring houses as to where Haruhi and her parents moved to stay. It wasn't too hard to find Haruhi's house location seeing as it was all over the newspapers, almost like an RPG game where you have to find a certain power-up, but there are villagers shouting out where it is located. An old man living to the right of Haruhi's burned-down house in a traditional-styled Japanese home sympathetically informed me that Haruhi and her parents had moved in with one of Haruhi's father's friends until their house was finished being re-built. The man kindly gave me their address on a ripped piece of paper and I began to walk away from his house. I looked down to see where the address was. What the-, Really? Haruhi's new address was directly across the street from my house, what are the chances of that happening? Maybe the old man got it wrong.

I made my way back to my house, stopped outside the front gate, and took a look over at the location the address on the paper supplied. There was a large moving van outside of the house with a few men dressed in gray work uniforms taking boxes of items and conveying them from the back of the van to the front door of the house. I yearned for an explanation, so I decided to walk over to the neighboring house and see if I could find Haruhi or her parents. This is really weird. I got over to the back of the van and saw a man at the front door. He didn't look like he was one of the movers due to the fact that he had a business suit on, otherwise he didn't look too promising. Although I had decided that his general stature and complexion seemed enough when it came down to gathering information on the whereabouts of the Suzumiyas.

"Excuse me, are the Suzumiyas here?"

The tall, suited man turned around and examined me for a second. He had short, dark hair and hazel eyes and he was a pretty pale person, if you ask me. It wouldn't have been so awkward if he didn't examine my lower areas for a while longer than anywhere else. Maybe I was just paranoid.

"Yes, I'm David Suzumiya. May I ask who you are?"

Wow, David? An American, huh? Wait, did he say Suzumiya? This is Haruhi's father? The man looked bulky enough to be such a girl's father. I wouldn't want to 'disagree' with a man like that. I decided to continue on my quest for information while I muddled through my thoughts.

"Haruhi Suzumiya knows me as Kyon. I go to the same school as her, is she here by any chance?"

This man might only know that idiom-of-a-name from Haruhi, it's probably the only way he would. I probably shouldn't be spreading my nickname to him as well. I guess I've gotten used to it by now, maybe I should change my legal name to that? That would be pointless.

"Sorry, no. She left with my wife to buy some things in town."

Buy things? I've never known Haruhi to be the 'shopping' type, but I guess it makes sense, I've rarely ever seen Haruhi outside of school.

"Oh, alright then. Could you tell her I stopped by?"

"Sure."

The rather thick and tall man reached out his hand to entice me into shaking it. So this is an American hand shake? I decided it would promote the best outcome to shake his hand. His hand was like a thick vise grip that wouldn't let go until you gave in under its tremendous pressure, he was definitely the 'leader type', judging by this trait.

"See you later."

"Same to you."

Yep, he's definitely American, I would've never thought one of Haruhi's parents was American, maybe her Mom has had a divorce before. I doubt it.

I finished my homework with twenty minutes left to spare that night, it was dark by then. I read a magazine until it was time for me to get some rest. I was already going to bed thirty minutes earlier in hopes of fetching back the sleep I lost the previous night, I should have enough time to read a bit too, right? I turned out my bed stand lamp and began to fall to sleep, I can only imagine what kind of insanity will arouse from this entire situation. Oh boy…

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_Please leave a review and tell me if you think I should continue this story or not!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Here's chapter 2! I hope this story becomes popular. _

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The next morning was pretty normal, as far as getting ready for school was concerned, but luckily I had made up my sleep debt and I was a free man! I felt wide awake. The day was looking pretty good until I remembered that one fact: Haruhi's house had burned down. I stopped eating my breakfast for a second or two when this thought rolled into my mind. I trudges through my thoughts on the matter as I made my way through the door for school. A blast of abnormality hit me in the face when I peered across the street and found Haruhi galloping down the steps of that house. Oh boy, this is going to be a rough day. I was going to go back inside for a second to avoid walking with her to school but she looked up and noticed me right when I had begun to take the first step back inside my house. I saw a smile carve onto her face as she waved at me from across the street, making me feel like a Roman, forever cursed to deal with the rebellious Saxons.

"Kyon!"

As she shouted from across the street, a young couple walking to school together was passing by and gave her an odd look of discern. Sigh. I don't see what the problem is here, it's just Haruhi, it's not like she can be even more troublesome in the morning than any other time of the day, right?

"Yo."

She began to walk toward my house until she was on the sidewalk, it would've been rude if I didn't come down to the sidewalk as well, so I did as well. She was wearing her usual gold ribbon and sailor-styled uniform, although her usual bright shine was nowhere to be found, or maybe it was just a lower concentration than usual? The appearance made me feel hapless.

"You didn't tell me you live here!"

"Yep, I live here."

"Aren't you going to ask why I'm here?"

Haruhi's expression appeard as angry, while an enigmatic smile was pasted on her face with it.

"I already know what happened."

"You could've played along, then! You're not any fun."

She gave off her mischievous smile, but it was a bit more intense this time than a few seconds ago, she placed her hands on her hips. Wait, she didn't expect to see me? Didn't her Dad tell her I was here?

"Well he did but he's the kind of guy that jokes around a lot. It was hard to take him seriously, so I didn't know whether to believe him or not."

He sounds a bit less respectable than I had surveyed.

"We should start walking, I don't really know the way to school from this direction, so help me out, got it?"

Well jeez, is that a question or the order of a German dictator? I decided... the second one!

"Whatever."

Haruhi began to march down the sidewalk. I really wish she wouldn't walk like that with me nearby, it made me feel uncomfortable to be seen around with her. If anybody walks up to us, I'll have to split from her fast. It was a lot harder to make it look like we're not together when I have to tell her "wrong way" every minute when she tries to take the wrong road to school, maybe this would work better if I was in the front.

The entire walk to school, I stayed a good ten feet behind Haruhi. Although her usual ego's durability had decreased, it had been replaced by an even more powerful force that gave any man the mental sign "Keep out! Deadly force is permitted!" It was a bit surreal, she periodically looked behind to see where I was, once she noticed I was lagging behind, she stopped and waited for me to catch up. It made me feel like an old man trying to keep up with an energy-filled child at an amusement park. Her march turned gradually into a normally-paced walk on the incline to school, I guess she too got exhausted from the hike. Her power levels were definitely draining fast against this foe, I hope you feel my pain now, Haruhi. Due to the fact that she was walking less pragmatically on the incline, I was able to catch up a bit and walk beside her, but she was abnormally quiet the whole time. Maybe the fact that her house was reduced to a pile of smouldering ash made her this quiet, or maybe she was always quiet in the mornings? I doubt it. The walk was actually not that bad until Taniguchi joined up with us, that is. I really can't even begin to imagine what kind of remarks he can come up with, can't he just hang out with Kunikida on the way to school, just for today? Apparently not.

"Yo Ky-!"

I turned left as I usually do when Taniguchi walks off his side road and joins me on my walk, sometimes he even waits for me on the three-foot concrete bench protruding from the lower portion of the wall. Haruhi stopped as well, looked at me, and then looked to where Taniguchi's voice had come from. Taniguchi's run turned into a walk as he noticed who I was walking to school with. A sinister smile grew on his face. I hope he doesn't decide to mess up my hair again today, I had taken more time and effort into it this morning. I wish I could cast the spell of silence on him.

"So you two are walking to school together now, huh?"

Didn't that idiot hear what happened to her house? I felt like pointing out his mistake but Haruhi did for me, almost leaving me half-expecting Taniguchi to rebut; "So Suzumiya wears 'the pants' in the relationship, huh?"

"I'm staying in a house across the street from Kyon until my house is finished being rebuilt."

I thought she would've gotten as defensive as me about Taniguchi trying to call us a couple, but apparently I was wrong once again.

"But you _are_ walking together to school?"

He's a persistent guy, I'll give that to him. Haruhi gave me a look of oppression and continued to battle against the personally unusual labor of hiking the hill. Wait, didn't she walk up and down this hill every day when she was living in her old house? If so, why is she acting so tired? I formed an educated guess based on current events. I followed her, once she had started picking up the pace she had gained before Taniguchi pretty much pulled up, gave her a ticket, and then continued on his merry way, leaving Haruhi feeling a bit somber. Taniguchi decided to give us a few feet, so he walked a bit behind us until Kunikida poured out into the mix. Once he showed up, Taniguchi and him started to slow down, I eventually lost the sound of their voices behind me as the quantity of people on the incline grew and their conversation volume digressed into the others'.

The wind that day was rather soft and felt good, it felt better than I had expected. About one-third of the way up the incline to school, I decided to try to comfort Haruhi, I don't want any world-ending Closed Spaces popping up. It was my job to keep the highly renowned morale of the army of the Empire of Haruhi flowing.

"How long are you going to be staying next door?"

"A month or two."

Wow, that's longer than I had anticipated, maybe I could try to convince myself and her that this wasn't a bad thing. Having to worry about Haruhi every night would certainly create some stress on my life, if I had her powers, I would have a few Closed Spaces of my own cascading into existance. She's not that bad, right? She decided to speak once more.

"We're walking home together too, alright? If you don't comply, it's the death penalty!"

I glanced at her for a second, she wasn't looking at me and she had her arms crossed. She was behaving the way she did a while back when we had two days of hard rain and we had walked home together under an umbrella. Almost like a man who had just won the lottery but was trying to keep his happiness supressed because he knew it wouldn't last very long. Which reminds me, today would make the third time we've done that. I've never actually seen Haruhi's house, well, scratch that, I've seen her house when it was burned down. I tried harder to boost her energy level back to standards, this isn't like her to be gloomy.

"At least we get more time together, right?"

That comment was forced out of my throat with all of my might, I then pondered on what I had said. Maybe I'm taking this conversation in the wrong direction. Haruhi focused her amber eyes on the concrete below and replied.

"I guess."

She expressed no emotion while speaking, it almost felt as if she was turning into Nagato. I supposed she'll get over the whole deal in a day or two and be back on her usual level. Or atleast I hope she does. Having two Nagato's and no Haruhi's would make the SOS Brigade a dull place, no offence Nagato, which is exactly what I fought against when I was caught in that alternate dimension where Haruhi had never made the decision to attend East High.

Haruhi spent the entire class period resting her head on her desk, I wish I could hide behind somebody and take a nap as well. I had the most enthusiastic urge to draw on her face while she was asleep. I made it my silent duty to see if she was still alseep every few minutes, making me feel like a witness to a crime tortured by being forced to stay awake as the prisoners get to sleep. I'm pretty sure any guy would think that Haruhi was an exceptionally beautiful young girl, as long as her mouth as shut, that is. It wouldn't be that bad if she stayed this quiet all the time, but her maniacally inflicted depression came along with that package. Damn it, why is everything inconvenient? I congregated with Taniguchi and Kunikida after class for lunch, turns out that Taniguchi was actually in a notably good mood today.

"Are you and Suzumiya dating now?"

No, like I and everybody else said, she just moved across the street. It's convenient to walk to school together, you see numerous boys and girls walking to school together, but they're not dating. The whole conversation was like one of those video games where you get to choose what the main character says, but you have to choose the correct option or the outcome won't be so well, that outcome here pertaining to Taniguchi's driven will to embarrass me.

"It doesn't matter, tt least Suzumiya is alright, many things could have gone wrong." Kunikida joined the conversation.

Taniguchi then slurped down on his ramen without any condolence toward Haruhi or recognition toward Kunikida's reply. He seemed to be using less hair gel today than before, maybe he took my advice, or maybe he unintentionally applied less today. The rest of lunch was full of complicated conversations between Taniguchi and Kunikida, I didn't join in on most of them, I just didn't feel like it. Was I catching Haruhi's depression cold?

After the rest of my classes finished, I made my way over to the club room. The walk to the club room was less gloomy than the previous portions of the day had been, my day up until then had been feeling quite somber. I knocked on the club room door and made my way to my usual seat in the club room, beside the folding table in the center. Asahina was brewing tea on one side of the clubroom, Nagato was sitting in her usual corner, reading a fiction novel, and then there was Haruhi. She was clicking on the mouse of the computer. It actually seemed like nothing had occurred last night. Was I delirious?

I stood at the door for a second or two before Koizumi silently stalked up behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder. Can you get off please? I didn't even hear him coming, that's peculiar. Koizumi spoke in his usual, optimistic tone.

"May I have a word with you, Kyon?"

Haruhi looked over the computer at Koizumi with an easy-to-make-out confused expression. I hope she doesn't consider the possibility that he's asking me to leave the club room for any 'yaoi reasons', the whole thought made me quiver.

"May I borrow Kyon for a moment, Ms. Suzumiya?"

Haruhi's expression changed from confused to relaxed after these words rolled through her ear canal.

"Be back within twenty minutes or you'll both be forced to take Mikuru's place and make tea for the SOS Brigade for the next week! You hear?"

Koizumi replied with his usual, obediently stated 'yes, Ms. Suzumiya'. I circled back around and outside of the club room door as Koizumi closed it behind himself, he then made it apparent with a gesture that I should follow him, as if I didn't already understand this fact. Where is he taking me? I decided to ask.

"We're just going for a walk. Maybe we can grab a drink in the common area to make our conversation a little more pleasant."

I could only make an educated guess that whatever he wanted to speak to me about involved Haruhi, leaving me feeling like the owner of a huge corperation that just released a new product, but is disappointed when he realizes that every customer comes back with the same manufactured problem. With recent events, I highly doubt it wasn't about Haruhi, there can't be any other plausible cause for this, unless maybe he just wanted to grab a drink with a friend and hang out? No. I blindly followed him down the staircase and into the common area where he turned and began to walk directly over to the drink machine. He fiddled around in his pockets for a few seconds before acknowledging my existance. He yanked out eighty yen and counted the coins in his hand for a second or two before turning his attention to me.

"I seem to have made a miscalculation when buying lunch today, I'm stuck with eighty yen. Do you, by any chance, have twenty more I can borrow?"

Sigh. I guess I owe him atleast a small debt after all the things he's done. Whatever. I decided to adhere to his request by looking through the pockets of my wallet for the one I keep my spare money in. Well, that's unlucky, one hundred and twenty-five yen. Crap, now I have to pay for mine and his drink.

"Yeah, here."

I handed him the twenty yen he required for his desire for 'cheap soft drink' to be met. He inserted his eighty yen in the machine along with my twenty yen. You owe me twenty yen, Koizumi. He held his index finger out for a few moments and looked around on the drink machine's buttons as if he didn't know if he wanted a drink in the first place. You didn't even know if any of the drinks you wanted were in that machine? Finally he came to a conclusion and the drink of his choice fell out of the bottom of the machine. Well, at least he decided to pick one. He picked up the Strawberry Ramune in the tray. I decided I would try one of those as well, so I pressed the same button he did, but a Pineapple Ramune came out. Well, I guess this is just as tasteful? It made me think about I had just played through an intense boss fight in a game, only to find that the reward I had fought for was the wrong item. We both popped open the caps on our soft drinks and began to make our way to a random table. There was a lot of gum under the tables, I thought they clean the underside of the tables? I guess not. Once seated, I knew that it was time for him to begin his lecture.

"I bet you're wondering why I brought you down here."

As a matter of fact, I am. Please elaborate.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you already know what and who it's about. It's fairly obvious that there aren't many contenders for this one."

"Yes, I know."

How could I not know, everybody in the school knows. She's the only topic of conversation with you, I don't know what kind of person you would be if she wasn't there to talk about. I might have been able to experience this bizarre phenomenon when I was caught in the parallel universe where Haruhi and Koizumi attended a separate school from East High together. That was short lived, but looking back on it and evaluating all further options, I'm glad I made the decision that I did. Who knows where the world would be right now if I didn't? Nagato, do you know? I then wished I was Zeus, omnipotent and omniscient, able to foresee and stop every negative turn of events.

"Well, two nights ago, a Closed Space of unearthly proportions formed around Suzumiya's house, and expanded at one mile per second. That might not sound like much, but that means me and my colleagues were forced to destroy three celestial giants per minute, which isn't good on our energy level."

"Your point?"

He placed his hand on his chin and scratched it briefly before his eyebrows rose and then came back down. He then gave an obtuse chuckle, What's so funny?

"My point is that the world was going to end last night if it wasn't for one thing. According to your knowledge of the grand scheme of events recently, I'm fairly sure you already know what that one factor is."

Oh boy, always this 'one thing', What is it this time?

"You."

Well, to be honest I saw that coming. It made me feel like the protagonist in an RPG game that was forced to take on an enemy in a storyline, already knowing that the enemy will kill off your sidekick.

"How did I stop the destruction of the world this time?"

"Haruhi's father informed her that you had stopped by and that you resided next door. After she heard this, the Closed Space stopped expanding and stayed at their current size for ample time. I guess I can safely say you're our trump card when it comes to saving the world, we probably would have lost that battle if you weren't here. When morning came around, the Closed Space shrunk at an alarming rate, do you know what happened?"

Yay, I'm an object that you can call a trump card. I don't know what happened, do you, omnisciently sourced esper?

"What?"

Koizumi rose his eyebrows and began to scratch his chin again, he honestly needs to find a new gesture, the same one gets a bit dull after the thousandth time it is applied.

"You don't know? I was hoping you would."

Well no, I really and honestly have no idea. I don't make it my duty to stare through Haruhi's house windows like a peeping tom to see what goes on every second of her life. Wait, how did your colleagues know about her father telling her that I lived next door, but they weren't on site in the morning to notice and examine what was going on? How does that make sense, your colleagues take shifts, possibly?

"Well yes, actually they do. That time frame just so happened to be in the 'blind spot' of our shifts. If it wasn't, I would've let you continue into the clubroom upstairs. Are you're sure you don't know?"

"Nope. No idea."

"Hmm. Well, then that throws a bit of a monkey wrench in the situation."

"Why is that?"

"Well we need to find out what caused the immediate crash of that colossal Closed Space. It could help us in the future in preventing them from ever growing that big again, but I guess it's a lost cause, oh well."

Well jeez, sorry I couldn't be of much help to your anti-doomsday device, Mr. Esper. It almost felt like he was trying to make me feel like a child who kept getting asked the same math problem in class, when he clearly and truthfully did not know the answer. If I had the cure for cancer, would you want that less than this? I began contemplating the idea of me finding the cure for cancer, yeah right. Koizumi forced me to take into account the fact that he was done speaking, wow, that was fairly shorther than all your other lectures.

"There's another important item that has been brought to my superiors' attention in the light shed on recent events, imagine Haruhi as this napkin here."

Koizumi decided to pull a napkin out of his pocket to help me understand his odd diagram, and set the deceased fragment of a tree on the table. He continued by wielding a pen from his pocket and drawing a series of randomized, squiggly lines all over it. Afterwards, he decided to place his index finger placed square in the middle. Wait, why did he have a napkin in his pocket?

"Anyway, let's say that Haruh is in a normal mood, as shown by this napkin here, it's a typical day for her, until her home is reduced to ash."

He proceeded by lifting the napkin over his thumb directed toward the heavens, the napkin suddenly burst into flames and began to fall apart. Wait, what? How did that happen? I thought Koizumi said he was unable to wield his powers outside of a Closed Space?

"As you can see, the napkin is burning, and in the process, the squiggly lines I drew on it are dissolving in the flames and crumbling."

"What is the purpose of this metaphor, and I thought you said you couldn't use your powers outside of a Closed Space."

"Think of those squiggly lines as Haruhi's inner-most thoughts, I'm sure you'll see the light in this if you do. As for the Closed Space situation, circumstances have changed."

What do you mean 'Haruhi's inner-most thoughts', and how have circumstances changed, stop using metaphorical demonstrations and tell it straight!

"I don't have enough time right now to go into detail, but I'm sure we can find the time somewhere next week."

Well that was an utter waste of time, I understood zilch out of that!

"Well thank you for listening to what I had to say to you, it wasn't safe to ask you upstairs. I'll inform you if any more Closed Spaces appear."

Not safe? Why is that? I truly don't want to be 'informed' when such demoralizing objects appear, but feel free to stamp it on my brain tissue anyway. Koizumi's voice sounded again.

"Well, I have some business to attend to. I'll check in with Suzumiya and tell her that I must leave for the day."

After I had thrown away my empty soda bottle and climbed the never-ending staircase to Heaven (or Hell). Once through the door to the club room, Koizumi informed Haruhi that he had business to attend to and would be taking leave for the remainder of the day, as he said he would, and left. Ms. Asahina and Nagato had already left as well, leaving me with nothing but an empty room, that's unusual. I noticed Haruhi was still present and sitting behind the SOS Brigade's computer as I walked over to my usual seat and sat down with a sigh. Maybe I can try taking a nap now? The eight ball says… no!

"Everybody else has already left." Haruhi stated.

I'm aware of this. What are you getting at?

"Well, we need to head home before it starts to rain again!"

I had to see for myself if her advocation of a weather reporter was true. I leaned over and look through the window, but to my disappointment, she was right. The sky was cloudy yet again, wait, wasn't the sky completely blue and clear when I was in the common area with Koizumi? Did the god of inclement weather feel unmerciful tonight and threw some clouds upon the sky?

"Fine."

Haruhi clicked several dozen more times on the computer before she actually began to shut it down. Once she did, I followed suit and began to prepare to leave. Once the computer was shut down, Haruhi energetically made her way for the door, she made a gesture that signified that I should walk out in the hallway, so I did as she commanded. Once she had locked the club room door, we began the descent for home. Haruhi was relatively quiet the whole hiking trip back to our houses, I then remembered that she was quiet both other times I had walked her home, could it be possible that it's not that unusual after all? Eccentric people run out of energy every day too, right? Haruhi's forceful motion suggested that she wanted me to drop her off at the front door of the house rather than going our seperate ways at the intersection. She walked up the steps and opened the door. I took it upon myself to wait at the bottom of the steps for her to disappear in the junk-filled caverns of her temporary home. As she began to close the door, I couldn't help but notice Haruhi was looking at me. Is she going to say anything or what? To end the motionless time frame in the front of her house, I made the motion to show clearly to her that I desired to rest inside of my own abode. Afterwards, I put my motion into affect and started to head for the small, metal gate connected to the front of my house. The night was very dark, except for a few street lights which made it feel like I was a single person floating in the cosmos with a few, distant stars dropped here and there.

"Good night, Kyon."

My thought train abruptly paused as I had inquired if Haruhi had said this or not, so I checked, but by the time I had turned around, she was already gone and the door was closed. Damn it, I should've replied or something, maybe said good night back? Maybe I should've just said 'bye'?

I finished the homework I was assigned, which was relatively smaller in quantity than the usual amount. I decided it would be most beneficial to go to sleep an hour early to get the long-needed rest I've been putting off. I thought I had paid it off the previous night, but apparently I was wrong. Once that time came, I wrapped myself in my blanket and began my journey into dreamland. My bed was warm, as it has been for the past few days, I guess the current circumstances aren't as bad as I had expected. Oh well, good night, SOS Brigade. Good night Haruhi...

* * *

_Feel free to review the story! Tell me how I did on Kyon's thought and speech patterns as well as the other characters'. Did I nail it or do I need work? BTW, this chapter is meant to be a realtively low progression from chapter 1. I don't want the HaruhixKyon things happening just yet, that would go against their actual behavior. I want to make it less noticable/abrupt._


	3. Chapter 3

_Well, I know it took a while, but I hope you guys are still interested. Am I getting better with Kyon's narroration?_

* * *

The next morning was as drab as the past few days had been, in a sense. I muddled through my thoughts about the previous day, wondering what all that nonsense Koizumi spouted out meant? I went in my morning routine and began to make my way to the front door of my humble abode when I looked out the kitchen window and noticed Haruhi sitting on my front steps eating a curry bun. What the Hell was she thinking, the situation made me feel like Odysseus, cursed to forever adventure onward into unlikely victories. I took a deep sigh and finally took the first step out of the door and into the world of bizarre happenings and melancholic thoughts. The day was rather clear, just like the past few days had been, but I was fairly sure that the inclement weather that was conveyed in the final hours of those days had been strapped on to this one as well. I took the time to look down at Haruhi as I shut the door behind me, she was wearing a red ribbon today. Wait, a red ribbon, that's very unusual, I decided to seek out the reasoning for this anomaly.

"That's a different color ribbon than the usual."

Haruhi turned around as if she hadn't noticed I was there from the second I had screeched open my front door, her cheek was stuffed full of bread.

"I thought it would be fun to wear a different color today! It's Friday, after all! We didn't get to do our fun activity the day before yesterday, so I thought we should do it after school hours today!"

A million-Watt smile zapped across her face, signifying that whatever she had planned had to be at least better than the usual search around the city for invisible beings that were already in the same club room as her for an hour a day. This better not be some stupid trip to the Karaoke or something.

"It's a surprise, as if I would tell you anyway, you would just make up some lame excuse to not show up!"

The subconscious level of my brain sent me a reminder of Asahina's constant "that's classified" when Haruhi stated that. Asahina… sigh. She had a look on her face that was telling me 'let's go!' with a hint of 'you're a moron' seasoned on top to spice up the mixture. She gulped down her bun, ripped another chunk out and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Let's get going, I think I know the way to school, let me lead."

"Don't speak with your mouth full."

Haruhi gave me a contradictory look of confusion and resentment as she swallowed yet another chunk of the bread. She decided to stop wasting time by staring into my soul and stood up to begin the hike.

"This way!"

She pointed down the street into the maze of homes, at least she got the first direction right, I half expected her to point right rather than left. Haruhi then began her usual, robust march down the road, seeing as I went to the same girl as that crazy girl, I was forced to follow by law. Haruhi completed the routine I had anticipated would occur today as well as yesterday; her energy level drained five percent per minute, leaving her decimated at the top of the incline to school. I was beginning to contemplate whether Haruhi had unlimited energy like Koizumi had stated or if she was just a normal Human-being. Or possibly she was a pseudo-omnipotent girl. The walk beside Haruhi was similar in comparison to the previous day, meaning that not much was worth-while mentioning to anybody.

After my liminal classes and lunch, I made my way up to the club room in the old half of the building. The day was beginning to turn for the worst, as had all the past few days, as I predicted. Maybe I should go into the psychic business. I must have totally forgotten to knock the door today, because all I remember is barging right in. The scene that blasted me in the face as I entered was so erotic that I lost control of my fingers, my books dropped to the ground.

Asahina was standing by the costume rack with a privacy-deprived look on her face as well as a blood-red blush. She only had her bra and her panties on. STRAWBERRIES!

"WAH?"

As Asahina prepared herself for a large, ear-splitting scream, I took it upon myself to rush back out of the door and into the hallway. The angel of beauty sadly, doesn't know how to simply lock a door. Of course I could say it was my fault, but she still needs to set her mind prior to getting dressed for such a task. About two minutes later, a muffled voice penetrated the door and slid across my eardrum with a soft whisper.

"Y-you can come in now, Kyon."

I obeyed this blissful request and quietly opened the door. Asahina was in her maid uniform, already working on the first cup of warm, neutralizing tea. Sigh. Asahina, you are indeed an angel.

"Suzumiya said she would be back in a few minutes, you can go ahead and sit down, if you like."

I will adhere to your consultation, Asahina, your wish is my command. The club room was as silent as a roam through the meadows of an RPG game with the music cut off with Nagato occasionally flipping the pages to her book, it was quiet, just not quite enough. I only had about ten minutes of glorious rest before Haruhi barged in the door with Koizumi behind her. She said nothing, but walked immediately to her computer and heavily sat down. Koizumi stood there for a few seconds and decided to come in as well, he grabbed the box to Chinese checkers and slid it across the table in front of me. I shrugged my shoulders giving him the 'sure, why not' vibe. We only had enough time to set up the marbles on the colorful board before Haruhi stood up and cleared her throat so loud that it sounded painful.

"Today the SOS Brigade is taking an all-expense paid trip to a Hot Springs Hotel!"

What? A hot springs hotel, really Haruhi? Satisfyingly, it's a better choice than I would have expected but why there of all places? Haruhi gave me a disgruntled look.

"Because, there's a wishing well there that has a spell on it, if you throw twelve yen in and make a wish, your wish comes true!"

That has got to be the most obsolete story I've ever heard come out of that girl's constantly-moving mouth. Wait! If we go there, I might get to see Asahina in her bathing suit! Oh, how I wish to gaze upon her impressive shape, what a magnificent sight that would be! Haruhi gave me yet another look of displeasure and slung her index finger directly in front of my nose.

"Kyon, don't go getting any funny ideas! This isn't a time to goggle at Mikuru, got it?"

To be honest, I really didn't care about the two cents Haruhi threw in, this could be chance for me, and so I will seize it! Haruhi backed her hand away from my face and began to go on her lecture of plans for the trip. I must say, Haruhi, you've outdone yourself this time, atleast you thought up an actually entertaining activity, for once. You have my condolences for so graciously setting me and Asahina up.

Afterwards, Haruhi made it apparent that she had already told the others where we were going, leaving me out in the cold in the entire situation. Wouldn't I need my bathing suit, Haruhi? You didn't plan this one out very well. Asahina let me use her cute, pink cell phone to call my parents and inform them that I wouldn't be back until Sunday evening, astoundingly, their answer was 'alright'. Didn't they care where I was going or if I needed them to bring me anything, a bathing suit and some extra clothes, for example? Koizumi approached me after Mikuru and Haruhi were already out the door and in the hallway and Nagato was on her way. He got uncomfortably close to my ear.

"I suggest you do as Haruhi says."

Wait, what does that mean? Can you please get away from my ear? I whispered in reply to follow the apparently discrete conversation.

"What do you mean?"

Koizumi then backed off and gave me a look of appreciation for understanding before he followed Nagato out of the doorway. I looked out of the window for a second and noticed that it had begun to drizzle yet again. Damn it, why are all these days like this?

The trip to the Hot Spring Hotel was less than memorable, consisting of about two train rides, five bus rides, and two miles-worth of uphill walking. By the time we arrived at the Hotel, I was already exhausted from the hike. Trudging to and from school along with this task made me feel like Sisyphus, cursed to forever roll the boulder up that anonymously located hill. Although the prospect of Asahina getting close to me in the warm spring waters was flowing vigilantly through my subconscious, there was still the factor of Haruhi. I wish she was dating Koizumi or something, although that would be totally gross, at least I would get some time with Asahina rather than Haruhi always interrupting. Haruhi checked in to the front desk and argued with the concierge about the option of receiving a room on the highest floor of the building for about thirty minutes. During this time period, I took it upon myself to finally take a rest, so I squatted down and leaned against one of the wooden columns in front of the concierge desk. While the little man in the suit argued with our obsessive Brigade leader, Asahina began to sit down beside me. Ah, the angel of redemption has descended upon me today, willingly shedding light upon this rainy day.

"Kyon."

Asahina whispered in a content and soft voice in my ear, I really didn't mind it.

"We can't get too close for the next two days, ok?"

What? Why is that? Has this goddess suddenly unveiled herself as Medusa? This cannot be!

"Why is that?"

I whispered back to Asahina. Her answer was a short, insignificant:

"That's classified."

She looked down at the floor briefly and then proceeded to stand back up. Her skirt was right at my eye level, I struggled not to look in that direction.

After Haruhi won her battle of wits against the reprieved-of-energy concierge, Haruhi turned around to face us as a lightning bolt-powered smile formed across her face. She held up the card to the room. Koizumi proceeded to fetch a trolley for all of our bags, except my bag, that is. Damn you, Haruhi. The Hotel was rather Western-feeling with a nice fragrance of cherry blossoms and maple wood drifting about. We finally reached our hard-earned destination, Haruhi brutally retrieved the room card from her pocket and slid it across the lock beside the door handle. A small, comfortable room with two rooms and four beds lay beyond the doorway, it was definitely cozy, based on looks. Haruhi firmly grasped Asahina's arm and rushed through, onto one of the well-made beds. Well, not made anymore. She shoved Asahina down onto it and began pouncing between the two beds in the left room.

"See? I told you this would be fun!"

Wait, who's paying for all this, are you, Haruhi? I couldn't begin to imagine how her parents would react if they found out she spent all this money on a nice hotel stay for two nights, I know my parents would be furious. The room had a nice cinnamon smell to it, unlike the rest of the building, signifying that this room was of class and higher stature!

"Come on, Mikuru!"

Haruhi picked her up and began to jump from bed to bed along with her. Asahina's chest girth was pouncing up and down, synchronized with Haruhi's jumps. I think I need a hot chocolate. Koizumi and Nagato proceeded inside, leaving me in the hallway to deal with the trolley, thanks a lot guys. I made my way inside the distinctly fancy room and concentrated on picking my bed and lugging the trolley behind me. All four of the Brigade members had chosen their bed, leaving no bed for me. Damn it, why do I always choose the short stick out of these situations? Just as such a thought popped into my mind, Haruhi's coincided with mine, thus making my argument valid!

"Attention! Now that we are here, we must begin the search!"

Wait, a search? I knew a trip such as this was too good to be true, but at least we can relax in the Hot Springs after said search, unless, of course, Haruhi planned on keeping us searching for whatever she wanted to find over the whole span of this trip. Haruhi stabbed a sharp look in my direction, intensifying her seriousness.

"Look, Kyon, you're going to play in on this search unless you want me to kick your ass, got it?"

Do I have much of a choice, oh warrior goddess? Haruhi almost continued on her rant before Koizumi interrupted.

"Excuse me, Ms. Suzumiya, may I inquire as to what this search is for?"

Haruhi's mood diverted into a mischievous tone as she opened her mouth to answer Koizumi's question, leaving me feeling like the fat kid who just won't shut up after his Mom tells him to more than twice at an ice cream shop.

"We're looking for ghosts, of course!"

Wait, did you just say ghosts? Oh brother, why can't we just have a nice, relaxing trip to the hot springs, you're going to ruin the whole trip, Haruhi. Haruhi jumped down from standing on her bed and decided to sit on the edge of it instead, I took a glance at Asahina and noticed that she looked as frightened as ever, probably due to the prospect that Haruhi is forcing us to search for ghosts. Haruhi snapped her fingers and began to run her mouth again.

"We're starting the search in twenty minutes, so be downstairs in the coffee shop! Last one there has to pay, Kyon!"

Did she just automatically assume that I would be the last one there? Haruhi, your level of pigheadedness astounds me, even now. Haruhi marched out of the room and into the hallway, giving me a nasty scowl before she slammed the door. There was only one bathroom In the entire suite Haruhi had bought out for us, so I didn't have enough time to take a shower, seeing as Koizumi and Nagato took five minute showers while Asahina took a ten minute one. All the worth, if she's clean and has the aroma of lavender caressing her head. I decided that I wouldn't have enough time to take one fairly early, so I began my descent to the coffee shop, surprisingly, Haruhi wasn't there, leaving a perfect chance for me to not be the last one there, thus cancelling me out as a contender for paying up for all of our drinks. With only five minutes left, I decided to lay my head down for a few minutes, just to get some extra rest for the hardship ahead. Sigh.

"Kyon?"

A soft, gentle voice awoke me from my slumber, I slowly opened my eyes and noticed Asahina was strategically poking my face. Ah, what a gift to be awoken by such a beautiful girl. I rubbed my eyes and lifted my head, Koizumi and Nagato came into focus, sitting on either side of Asahina. I took a look around and noticed that Haruhi was nowhere to be found, I checked my watch.

"It's three minutes after the time Haruhi set herself, what's got into her?"

Koizumi turned away from the gift shop he was gazing at and placed his eyes upon my drowsy face.

"She should be here any minute, now."

Koizumi shrugged his shoulders after stating that and moved his focus back to the gift shop across the lobby. The entire lobby was about three stories tall, almost like a large mall, there were many people attending to their own business back and forth to the shops lined up on the circular walls. With my vision fully restored from sleep, I noticed Haruhi walking out of a shop labeled "Haunted Emporium". Well, at least I know why she was in there. With my watch passing the fourth minute past the due time, Haruhi jogged the last few feet to our table in the coffee shop. I decided that now would be, more than likely, my only chance to ever point out her mistake and get on her for it. Carpe Diem!

"You're late, Haruhi."

Haruhi threw a nasty look at me as she rebuttled.

"Yeah, so what?"

"You have to pay for our drinks."

After I stated this, Haruhi's look became even more intense, I think that her face was an obvious sign of my hard-earned victory.

"Whatever, what do you want?"

Koizumi, Nagato, Asahina, and I gave her the order of beverages we desired, afterwards, Haruhi marched over to the register in the bakery section of the coffee shop. The shop was fairly loud, I could only make out whether Haruhi was following through with her promise or not by the way her lips were moving. Surprisingly, she stuck to it, and carried five drinks over to our table, almost dropping mine, probably intentionally.

"Here."

She pseudo-courteously passed the drinks out to each of us and took her seat between myself and Koizumi. The seats we were in were made of fake leather, although the bottom of the seat was rather flexible and comfortable. I glanced at Haruhi as she took the first slurp of her drink and it came to my attention that Haruhi had the same drink as me, I guess my drink sounded good to her when I had ordered it. Haruhi's hair had a sensationally overwhelming smell of cherry blossom intruding my nose, leaving me in a state of daze for a second or two. Haruhi began to speak again as she slammed down her drink.

"Alright, let the SOS Brigade ghost search begin!"

What? You haven't even given us instructions or directions yet, how does this make sense?

"I'm getting around to that, Kyon!"

Haruhi reached into her pocket and drew out five sticks, two of which had tips covered in red, similar to the sticks we used for our first ever club search. As Haruhi organized the sticks in her hand, I glanced at the table below and noticed that mine and Haruhi's drink were side-by-side, and the level of liquid inside was identical. Damn it, Haruhi, why did you do this, I can't tell which one is mine! I naturally chose the drink closest to me, in hopes that it was mine, and took a sip. After this movement, Haruhi looked at me out of the corner of her eyes then continued organizing the sticks. Haruhi's hand came crashing down upon the section of table in front of her.

"Alright, everybody pick a stick, no examining, just pick one!"

I reached for one of the sticks in Haruhi's hand after I had placed down my drink. Afterwards, all of the brigade members checked the sticks in their palms to see if they had chosen one of the sticks with the red tip. Sadly, Koizumi and I had the two abnormal sticks, maybe next time, Asahina. And so, without much delay, the brigade chief stood up and barked out her orders pertaining to the next thirty minutes of activity.

"Koizumi and Kyon, you're to search the upper two floors while my group will search the bottom floors! No half-assing it, if I catch you goofing off in some shop, I'll have your head mounted above my fireplace, got it?"

Yes, oh dictator of the free world. Haruhi threw a look of seriousness in my direction.

"Good! One more thing, you're not allowed to go into the hot springs area of the hotel!"

"Well, ok then, why is that?"

"Because I said so!"

After spouting this nonsense, Haruhi marched off with Nagato and Asahina light-footedly following. Koizumi turned his attention toward me after the girls were out of sight.

"Want to go to the game lounge?"

"Sure."

The entire thirty minutes Haruhi so eagerly gave out was filled with nothing but arcade games and prizes, although I can't complain with such a compromise. Koizumi seemed to be a lot better with arcade and video games than he was with board games, which wasn't good for me when it came to down to winning. About twenty minutes through the session, I remembered that Koizumi had used his esper powers in the school common area a few days ago, seeing as there wasn't much else to do, I decided to embark on a quest for the answer.

"Can you use your powers outside of Closed Spaces now?"

Koizumi's eyes left the arcade game screen and met mine.

"Well, it's funny you should ask that, I actually can."

"Could you do that all along?"

"It's really only the past few days that have allowed me to use said powers, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to burn the napkin I used to get my point across to you in the school common area."

I examined his hand for a second then cascaded my eyes around the arcade room, looking for a possible target for him to use. A bit to my left, about twenty feet away, I spotted a young child holding a slushy he had just bought from the coffee shop across the lobby.

"Can you heat up his slushy?"

Koizumi paused the game and shifted his body in my direction, examining the child I was pointing at.

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to do, but I guess it's not too terrible, as long as we can back away from this topic after I'm done."

"Fine."

Once I agreed to Koizumi's request, I gave him the green light to commence his operation. Koizumi lifted his hand and pointed at the child's cup as his finger began to glow a bright, vivid yellowish-blue. After about half a second, his finger stopped glowing and a small stream of smoke was flowing from the tip of the fingernail. I glanced back at the kid and noticed that there was a one-by-one inch hole in his cup, with a bright blue liquid flowing from it. The small kid examined his cup and began to cry, his Mom leaned down and tended to his leaking cup. Koizumi made it apparent that he wanted to look inconspicuous for the crime, so he and I turned back around and un-paused the game. How was Koizumi able to use his powers outside of a Closed Space? Does that mean Nagato can manipulate data around her without closing a space around the location? Can Asahina travel back and forth through time without using the TPDD? After my contemplation on the topic, it was already time to get back to the coffee shop, Koizumi and I made our way to the same table we had congregated at before and took a seat. About two minutes later, Haruhi, Asahina, and Nagato showed up as well, Haruhi had a particularly disgruntled look plastered on her face. They all took their seats beside us.

"Did you find anything?"

"I'm sorry, but we didn't, I guess we just didn't look in the right places."

After Koizumi's reply, Haruhi examined me and made it apparent that she knew he was lying.

"We didn't find anything either, there was an old, underground part of the building, but the stupid concierge wouldn't let us get to it! It pisses me off!"

Well to be quite frank, I really can understand why they wouldn't want to let three young girls into their basement, especially you, Haruhi, you could break their radiator or something.

"Let's mix up the groups again."

Haruhi reached for the five sticks again and strategically began to place them in her palm behind her back. She slammed her arm on the table and looked around at all of us, judging by her optimistic expression, she wanted us to begin pulling the sticks out of her grip. After Nagato and Koizumi had chosen their sticks, I reached for one of my own, but as I almost placed my finger on one of them, Asahina's hand came in contact with mine.

"Wah, I'm sorry, you go first."

"No, it's alright."

"Just pick one, damn it!"

After Haruhi insertion on our polite volley, we both chose a stick. After we had our sticks in grip, we all opened our fists and examined each other's hands to see who had the mysterious red-tipped sticks. I gazed upon my own stick and noticed that I had received yet another one of the red-tipped sticks, but to my dismay, Haruhi had one as well. Damn it, just my luck, why couldn't I get with Asahina? The group stood up and I followed suit, after Koizumi, Nagato, and Asahina had left, Haruhi turned her body toward me and began to speak.

"Let's see if we can get into the basement of this place!"

Really, Haruhi? She's just going to spend this time to intrude into some useless basement, was she really just as bored as I was then?

"Well I've heard a few people saying that the manager of this hotel keeps his victim's bodies in the basement, wouldn't it be cool if we found one?"

No, it most certainly would not be cool, that actually sounds quite frightening.

"Remember what happened last time you wished for something really bad to happen, Haruhi? We found a dead body."

Haruhi gazed at my hair as her mood morphed from eccentric to slightly worried, but then it changed back again.

"Yeah, but that was a set up by Koizumi and his friend, you can't say that my wish actually came true!"

Well, she had a valid point, which was a rare situation for somebody as controversial as her. Haruhi gave off an optimistic smile of victory then continued in the mission she was forced to stop as time didn't permit. She then grabbed my arm and tugged me along to force me to help her accomplish her pointless goal. Haruhi, as I've said millions of times before, couldn't you just find some nice guy and go to the movies with him or something rather than this? Your level of eccentricity is probably interfering with your hormones, though, oh well. As Haruhi dragged me down the hallway in between the Gift Shop and the Restrooms, I noticed that there was a bright, glowing EXIT sign at the end of it. As we approached the EXIT sign, I noticed Haruhi probably had no clue where she was going, I inquired.

"Do you even know where yo-"

Just then the very floor fell out from under Haruhi and I, we plunged into a pit of darkness. We must have fallen a good fifteen feet, because contacting the ground from the brief fall was quite painful on my back, but just when I thought it was over, Haruhi used me as a cushion to sustain her well-being after the fall. The small hatch overhead that we had fallen through began to get smaller and smaller until the two doors of it had met in the middle. It was completely dark. My common sense told me to feel around for a light switch, and to my good fortune, there was one. I flipped the switch up, resulting in a faint light powering up on the walls, on either side. As I subconsciously patted-myself on the back for my accomplishment, I decided to examine Haruhi to see if she was alright as well. She turned around and I saw a look I had only ever seen once on her face before, at the remote island Koizumi had taken us to, when Haruhi had just seen the body on the floor after the door came crashing down. The whole event gave me the horror movie feeling where you think somebody is about to grab your shoulder and scare you so bad that you almost soil yourself.

"Where are we, Kyon? What is this place?"

"I would tell you if I knew the answer myself."

* * *

_TO BE CONTINUED!_


End file.
